Google Testing New Search Feature for Gmail Users

If email is one of your primary communication tools then your inbox is probably a treasure trove of valuable information for your business. Search giant Google is testing a new search function that could make finding information in Gmail accounts even easier.

Right now, if you think you had an email exchange days, weeks or months ago with a customer or colleague on a specific topic, your only option is to search for relevant terms related to that email chain from Gmail's search tool. In a blog post yesterday, Google said it is allowing users who sign up for a limited trial to get information from their Gmail account right from Google's main search page.

"We think you shouldn't have to be your own mini-search engine to find the most useful information -- it should just work," Google senior vice president Amit Singhal wrote. "A search is a search, and we want our results to be truly universal."

So, if you're planning a business trip to San Francisco, for example, Gmail users who sign up for the trial might see emails that are related to that trip on the right hand side of the usual Google results page when searching for "San Francisco."

Google says it's working on another handy feature for business travelers: Collecting flight information from your email. If you search for "my flights", Google says it will organize and display your flight confirmation emails for upcoming trips right on the search results page.